Polo is the sport of kings, playboys and millionaires – or is it? In Polo King of Sports Michael Berkeley addresses some of the myths about the sport and portrays in words and images the world of low-goal polo. It is a world populated by obsessive people addicted to their sport and united by a shared … Read more
In the 1920s a group of previously unconnected writers and artists settled on the remote island of Tahiti, thousands of miles from home. Tahiti was the only South Pacific island at that time to have an artistic community. Why? The introductory chapters of Guys like Gauguin show how the image of Tahiti as a paradise … Read more
The famous Farley’s Rusks have been a staple diet for babies and young children for around 165 years and are still going strong. For the best part of sixty years the Farley’s firm was run, and largely owned, by three generations of a single family. Memories still abound, not only from many of those who … Read more
Set against the background of Liverpool’s rapid development as a port, ‘Restless Enterprise’ explores the achievements of the author’s three-times great-grandfather, Richard Lloyd, and his family. Aged fourteen, Richard arrived from Wales in 1836 and would be one of four generations of his family to hold the ancient post of Official Gauger to the Port … Read more
Sculpture is the last major field of European art in the Royal Collection yet to have been published. The product of twenty-five years of work by a leading scholar in the field, this four-volume publication marks the completion of one of the most ambitious stages in the long-term task of cataloguing the Collection, bringing full … Read more
AN AXE AND FOUR BALLOONS – The biography of Lieutenant Colonel Brian Franks DSO MC – the man who saved the SAS, with a foreword by General Sir Michael Rose KCB, CBE, DSO, QGM Brian Franks, loved by officers and soldiers alike, tough, capable, charismatic and charming. Like Biffy Dunderdale (A Suspicion of Spies) and … Read more
Author, envoy, soldier, spy, the Chevalière d’Eon spent half her life in France, presenting as a man, and the other half in London, presenting as a woman. D’Eon fought in battle, negotiated peace treaties and leaked state secrets, narrowly escaping the Bastille. Defying royal authority and gender norms alike, in the 1770s she became one … Read more
Highlights Details the career of a highly experienced officer and commander in the Royal Marines, Britain’s elite amphibious and special force – from joining the Corps in 1952, through to his command of 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands War and his retirement as Major General in 1986. Provides a fascinating background to his family … Read more
From his first day of teaching in a school in one of the most deprived towns in the country, to the end of his career as headteacher of a large international school in London, Graham Lacey (a 75) reflects on thirty-five years at the ‘chalkface’, through a number of specific experiences that helped shape his … Read more
Some novels entertain. Others leave a lasting impression because they capture not only history, but humanity. The Same Country, Quentin Drummond Anderson’s first literary historical novel, is one of those rare books. Dedicated to the memory of the 221 former pupils of Sherborne School who lost their lives in the First World War, it tells the … Read more